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‘In Considerable Variety’: Introducing the Diversity of Australia’s Insects pp 13–22Cite as

Fossils and Major Insect Adaptations

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Abstract

This structural diversity of insects, and the biological variety it reflects, did not develop all at once. Insects as we would recognise them from modern forms have been around for at least 300 million years, as amongst the first major diversifications of arthropods on land. Over this vast period, we can detect several changes and transitions in structure that appear now to have been ‘pivotal events’ in leading to their success and fostering their recent abundance. However, the fossil record from which we infer those changes remains cryptic in places: assembling unambiguous evidence from ancient insect fossils is not always easy, and it is not surprising that uncertainties persist – or that the opinions of various specialists may differ widely over how particular fossils may be interpreted! In this chapter, some background to the information on insect evolution derived from the fossil record is outlined, together with its relevance to study of the insects around us today.

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Further Reading

  • Bickel DJ (2009) The first species described from Cape York amber, Australia: Chaetopogonopteron bethnorrisae n.sp. (Diptera: Dolichopodidae). In Berning B, Podenas S (eds.) Amber – archive of deep time. pp 35–39. Denisia 26

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  • Grimaldi D, Engel MS (2005) Evolution of the insects. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (comprehensive, fully-illustrated, recent survey of the insect fossil record and the features and evolution of Recent insects)

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  • Jell PA, Roberts J (eds) (1986) Plants and invertebrates from the Lower Cretaceous Koonwarra fossil bed, South Gippsland, Victoria. Association of Australasian Palaeontologists, Sydney (comprehensive, well-illustrated descriptions and appraisal of a major insect fossil deposit in southern Australia)

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  • Poinar GO (1993) Insects in amber. Annu Rev Entomol 46:145–159 (overview of information then available)

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  • Wootton RJ (2001) How insect wings evolved. In: Woiwod IP, Reynolds DR, Thomas CD (eds.) Insect movement: mechanisms and consequences. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, pp 43–64

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Tim R. New

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  1. Tim R. New
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Correspondence to Tim R. New .

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© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

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New, T.R. (2011). Fossils and Major Insect Adaptations. In: ‘In Considerable Variety’: Introducing the Diversity of Australia’s Insects. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1780-0_2

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